Our invention relates to apparatus for cutting bars or the like into any required lengths. The bar cutting apparatus of our invention is particularly well suited for cutting reinforcing steel bars having ribs formed in a recurring pattern thereon, among other types of bars or like elongate objects. Hereinafter in this specification and in the claims appended thereto, we will use the word "bar" generically, to mean any elongate objects that can be handled by the apparatus.
The cutting of a bar exactly into required lengths requires the precese feeding of the successive required bar lengths into and through a cutting mechanism. Conventional expedients to this end have been either a stop adjustably movable for terminating the travel of the bar at a desired distance, or a pusher which pushes the bar a desired distance in coaction with a fluid actuated stop cylinder. These prior art devices are unsatisfactory in that they impose limits on the bar length that can be fed at one time, since the positions of the bar stop means are variable over a limited distance only.